His work as a screenwriter for the cinema was formidable but the theatre was his first love. He adapted many Dickens classics for BBC television including ‘Great Expectations’ and ‘A Tale of Two Cities’. He also gained a considerable reputation as a screen writer, when he lived in London for ten years.
Kean, Thomas Murphy and Brian Friel, Hugh Leonard was to emerge as a leading spirit. Leonard was part of the new breed of playwrights that came to the fore in the Irish dramatic revival of the late sixties following the deaths, within months of each other, of Sean O’Casey and Brendan Behan. The book deals with his childhood and schooldays in the town of Dalkey a suburb south of Dublin. ‘Home Before Dark’ is the first volume of autobiography by Hugh Leonard, the Irish playwright, author and journalist who died in 2009. Those that have yet to discover this book have a real treat in store, it is a gem of a book.
I defy anyone not to want to read on, to know more. As opening lines go, that one takes some beating. “My Grandmother made dying her life’s work”.
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